Welcome back to class! I hope you enjoyed your nice, long Fourth of July break.

OK, let’s review:

We’re schoolin’ you so you can school your state senator this summer on clean energy. By the time they’re back from their break, we want senators to see how lousy energy reform bills SB 437 & 438 are-and how to improve them.

This time, we’re crammin’ on the bills’ flat-out attack on homegrown solar power.

OK…let’s turn to that chapter….

Senators’ Clean Energy Summer School Lesson No. 3:

Turning Back the Attack on Rooftop Solar and Financial & Energy Independence

But first, we’ll start with a treat: a filmstrip from our A/V staff showing why and what we’re up against. You have special, one-time permission to turn it way, way up!

That was fun, eh?

But it’s no joke: There’s a nationwide, fossil-fuel-funded movement to kill home rooftop solar by slapping phat fees on solar systems and paying their owners peanuts for their clean power.

SB 437 & 438 would transform solar systems from good investments into mere hobbies for wealthy tree huggers, stopping Michigan’s rooftop solar industry cold.

Lawmakers have no business setting rates for rooftop solar. It’s complicated; only independent experts, like the Michigan Public Service Commission, should do it.

There’s plenty of evidence that rooftop solar is good for the grid, saves money for all involved, and cuts carbon emissions. Here’s an interview we did with a utility executive who gets it and helped invent the phrase “value of solar.”

OK…I see your eyes glazing over, so I’ll stop there. There’s much positive stuff about solar we’ll get to next time. Meanwhile, you know the drill: Click here to figure out your state senator’s name and address. Email ’em; make some points from today’s lesson; say it’s time to expand, not kill, home and small-business solar; and earn extra credit by mailing a hard copy of your letter along with some articles from today’s lesson.

We’ll talk about why solar’s getting so hot at our next class meeting.

OOOPS! There’s the bell, so see ya next week! Please don’t trample me while running to the cafeteria…

NEXT: Lesson 4: Solar’s got game in Michigan, and Lansing can help!